SCLOA - explain ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ concepts with relevant studies

Question 1

Etic approaches

Answer 1

• investigates cross-cultural behaviour (i.e. behaviour that transcends culture and is the basis of human behaviour)
• etic studies usually develop a theory in a particular culture (usually Western) and test for it in other cultures

Main study: WHO (1983)

Question 2

WHO (1983)

Answer 2

• used a standard diagnostic scheme to investigate symptoms of depression of 573 patients in Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Iran
• to discover if they had characteristics in common
• found that most patients experienced several common symptoms
• 76% of patients reported sadness, joylessness, and anxiety
• but 40% complained of symptoms not included in the diagnostic scheme being used (e.g. obsessions)
• Marsella et al. (1985) interpreted these findings as a strong demonstration of cultural factors

Question 3

Emic approaches

Answer 3

• investigates culture-specific behaviour
• explores a culture’s uniqueness and aims to discover
• emic studies operate under the assumption that a particular behaviour can only be found in the culture which is being studied

Main study: Manson et al. (1985)

Question 4

Manson et al. (1985)

Answer 4

• investigated culture-specific characteristics of depression
• developed the American Indian Depression Scale
• most Hopi participants could not find a word in the Hopi language that had an identical meaning to ‘depression’
• but the researchers could identify 5 categories used by Hopi to describe illness related to depression:
  • worry sickness
  • unhappiness
  • heartbroken
  • drunken-like craziness
  • disappointment
• some symptoms of those illnesses had similarities to the Western idea of depression
• but other symptoms had not place at all in Western diagnostic systems

Question 5

thoughts on combining etic and emic approaches?

Answer 5

• depression is a universal illness
• but culture partially determines how it’s expressed
• Marsella et al. (2002): manifestation of depression depends on the culture’s place on the individualism-collectivism continuum
• in individualistic cultures, common symptoms include feelings of loneliness and isolation
• in collectivistic cultures, somatic symptoms are more often reported